Thursday preview: BoE, Rolls-Royce in focus

All eyes on Thursday will be on the Bank of England which is expected to go ahead and raise interest rates further.

Consensus was for a further 25 basis point hike in Bank Rate to 4.50%.

For their part, economists at Bank of America had penciled in a 7-2 vote on the Monetary Policy Committee in favour of the move with no "substantial" changes to its guidance.

Nonetheless, despite retaining a tightening bias, any additional hikes would require upside surprised, BofA said.

US economic data would also continue to be in the spotlight.

At 1330 BST, the Department of Labor was scheduled to release producer price data for April, alongside the latest weekly unemployment claims figures.

In the corporate arena, investors' attention would be Rolls-Royce's first quarter numbers.

Worth noting, the company's shares were trading near their best levels since March 2020, despite its boss's characterisation of the engineer in February as a "burning platform".

Guidance for its full-year 2023 profits stood at £800-1.0bn while free cash flow was seen improving from £505m in 2022 to £600-800m.

According to Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK: "After recent share price moves there is some optimism that after the travails of the last 3 years that the path to a return to some sort of pay out may become that much closer."

Thursday 10 May

INTERIMS

Grainger

Q1

TBC Bank Group

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Videndum, Iofina, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Balfour Beatty

AGMs

Serinus Energy NPV, Videndum, Genel Energy, Costain Group, 88 Energy Limited (DI), Clarkson, Endeavour Mining, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Capita, Uniphar (CDI), Hiscox Limited (DI), Poolbeg Pharma, Eurocell, Condor Gold, W.A.G Payment Solutions, OSB Group, The Gym Group, Irish Continental Group Units (Comp) (CDI), Wood Group (John), Maven Income & Growth 4 VCT, Spire Healthcare Group, FBD Holdings (CDI), Gresham House, Elecosoft Public Limited Company, Cairn Homes (CDI), Kenmare Resources (CDI), MyHealthchecked

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Tesco, Inchcape, Serco Group, Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Reach, Headlam Group, Global Opportunities Trust, CVC Income & Growth Limited NPV GBP, Petershill Partners, Barr (A.G.), Centaur Media, CVC Income & Growth Limited NPV Euro, Lookers, Property Franchise Group, TBC Bank Group, Macfarlane Group, SThree, Clarkson, Tandem Group, EPWIN GROUP, Bank of Ireland Group (CDI)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Domino's Pizza Group, Moneysupermarket.com Group, Standard Chartered, Grafton Group Ut (CDI), F&C Investment Trust, Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Carr's Group, Avingtrans, Henderson International Income Trust, Ediston Property Investment Company, British Smaller Companies VCT 2, Target Healthcare Reit Ltd, Focusrite, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (DI), Fidelity Special Values, Greencoat UK Wind, Taylor Maritime Investments Limited NPV, GCP Asset Backed Income Fund Limited, James Halstead, Braime Group 'A'NON.V, Balanced Commercial Property Trust Limited, Braime Group, Alternative Income Reit, HSBC Holdings, GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Inv Trust, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd., SCS Group

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

BP, Custodian Property Income Reit, Greencoat Renewables (CDI), JPMorgan Claverhouse Inv Trust, Chenavari Toro Income Fund Limited NPV

Pollen Street

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited NPV, Mercantile Investment Trust (The)

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

RICS Housing Market Survey (00:01)

BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Producer Price Index (US) (13:30)